Lauren Boebert with her family. Photo courtesy of Lauren Boebert for Congress.
At The Spectator, Cockburn unveils a group of young conservatives running for office who hope to become a counterweight to the AOC led “Squad.” He writes (abridged):
‘Orange Man Bad’ is a fairly predominant ideological maxim of today’s American left. Many Republicans are invoking its right-wing counterpart — ‘AOC Dumb’ — in their primary races.
In 2020, several unconventional challengers have won impressive election upsets in GOP congressional primaries. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina destroyed Lynda Bennett in a contest for Mark Meadows’s former House seat by a margin of 32 points.
Lauren Boebert — a 33-year-old who owns a restaurant in which waiters open carry — unseated five-term GOP congressman Scott Tipton.
Other young GOP challengers across the country have the potential to clinch similar victories.
To many voters, the goal is to create a conservative version of the ‘Squad’ — a moniker that refers to the millennial Democratic freshmen Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley.
In their two years of public service, the four women have collectively confused the three branches of government, clashed with Democratic leadership over anti-Semitism, allegedly committed election fraud, taken selfies during the State of the Union address and, most recently, advocated for the ‘dismantling’ of the American economy.
Anna Paulina Luna — a 30-year-old former Air Force active duty service-member — is seeking to snag a congressional seat in Florida. Her Instagram account has nearly 300,000 followers and she’s managed to raise $800,000 in grassroots donations. She told Cockburn that she is ‘both an outsider and vehemently opposed to the left-wing radicals in the squad’.
Nancy Mace, a House candidate in South Carolina who will face off against the incumbent Democrat in November, also hopes to join the new conservative Squad: ‘This is not your grandfather’s GOP anymore.’
You can donate to Lauren’s campaign here.
